Victoria Mary Clarke shares why she and Shane MacGowan never had kids

Victoria Mary Clarke opened up about why she and Shane MacGowan never had kids.

The author and The Pogues singer-songwriter were together for more than 40 years until he sadly passed away in November 2023.

She explained that it was never in the cards for them.

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Victoria Mary appeared on the What A Woman Podcast, hosted by Sarah Benner and Caroline Lyons.

She said: “It wasn’t part of our [story]. I don’t think children would have really survived, honestly I don’t.”

The hosts called her take “refreshing” stating that people always assume that everyone wants children and that isn’t the case.

“I’ve never understood that. That would be like you telling me that everybody should want to be a bungee jumper or a racing driver – I can’t understand that. It doesn’t make sense to me.

“I can see how people think that having children is going to give them some kind of continuity, something will live on when they die or maybe somebody will look after them when they’re old. I can see that because there’s a practical side to it.

“But I just never [wanted kids].”

Victoria Mary opened up about Shane’s funeral and how she didn’t know what to expect when he passed away.

“It’s nothing that you could ever really prepare for, I don’t think,” she said. “I’m sure there are people that have had a similar situation, but until it’s happened to you, you don’t know how you’ll react.

“It was something that I would have been afraid of for a very long time, because very soon after me and Shane got together people started telling me that he didn’t have very long to live. That would have been in 1986.

“People started telling me that Shane had six months to live, because of the way he pushed himself.

“I spent most of the time worrying about him and worrying that something was going to happen to him.

“But even then, you might worry about something but that doesn’t mean you know what it’s going to be like. It’s like worrying about a car crash. Until you’ve been in a car crash, you just don’t know what it will really feel like.”

She continued: “It surprised me that it wasn’t all terrible. I assumed that you would go into a deep depression and nothing would lift you out of it, that you would lose the will to live completely and stay like that.

“I had experienced depression and that’s what it feels like. I assumed it would be like depression, but worse.

“It did surprise me that we were able to celebrate Shane. At his funeral there was a lot of laughter, dancing and singing. People enjoyed the funeral.”